First published in 1998, this valuable reference work offers concise, expert answers to questions on all aspects of life and culture in Medieval England, including art, architecture, law, literature, kings, women, music, commerce, technology, warfare and religion. This wide-ranging text encompasses English social, cultural, and political life from the Anglo-Saxon invasions in the fifth century to the turn of the sixteenth century, as well as its ties to the Celtic world of Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the French and Anglo-Norman world of the Continent and the Viking and Scandinavian world of the North Sea. A range of topics are discussed from Sedulius to Skelton, from Wulfstan of York to Reginald Pecock, from Pictish art to Gothic sculpture and from the Vikings to the Black Death. A subject and name index makes it easy to locate information and bibliographies direct users to essential primary and secondary sources as well as key scholarship. With more than 700 entries by over 300 international scholars, this work provides a detailed portrait of the English Middle Ages and will be of great value to students and scholars studying Medieval history in England and Europe, as well as non-specialist readers.

First published in 1998, this valuable reference work offers concise, expert answers to questions on all aspects of life and culture in Medieval England, including art, architecture, law, literature, kings, women, music, commerce, technology, warfare and religion. This wide-ranging text encompasses English social, cultural, and political life from the Anglo-Saxon invasions in the fifth century to the turn of the sixteenth century, as well as its ties to the Celtic world of Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the French and Anglo-Norman world of the Continent and the Viking and Scandinavian world of the North Sea. A range of topics are discussed from Sedulius to Skelton, from Wulfstan of York to Reginald Pecock, from Pictish art to Gothic sculpture and from the Vikings to the Black Death. A subject and name index makes it easy to locate information and bibliographies direct users to essential primary and secondary sources as well as key scholarship. With more than 700 entries by over 300 international scholars, this work provides a detailed portrait of the English Middle Ages and will be of great value to students and scholars studying Medieval history in England and Europe, as well as non-specialist readers.

The imagery of marriage and the family in Piers Plowmanrelated to contemporary social history. Kindly Similitude is the first study to offer a detailed reading of the many passages in Piers Plowman A, B, and C concerned with marriage and family, and to place them within the frameworks of contemporary social history, law, theology, exegesis, and literature. The author shows how Langland draws on the experiences of familial life both literally and metaphorically to further his expositions of law and love, nature and grace, the image of God in individuals and society, the use of time and material goods, the perversion of right relationships through covetise, and doing well in the active life. For Langland, an unmistakably public poet, the marital householdis inextricably linked to religious, economic, and political institutions. It reflects and transmits a divine exemplar of community, and plays a fundamental role in creating the society in which he and his audience must live. Thisimportant new critical approach complements the strong current attention to the poem's intellectual and ecclesiological contexts. Professor M. TERESA TAVORMINA is at the Department of English, Michigan State University.

Henry Daniel’s Liber Uricrisiarum is the earliest known work of academic medicine written in Middle English, presented here for the first time in a complete edition. Working in the late 1370s, Daniel combined authoritative medicine from written sources with his own personal experience, creating a text that stands out for its linguistic originality, intellectual scope, and wide circulation. Extant in over three dozen manuscript witnesses and two early modern print copies, Liber Uricrisiarum describes medieval humoral theory, anatomy, physiology, disease, medical astronomy, reproductive processes, and more, all within the broader context of uroscopic diagnosis. The introduction situates the text and its author in their medical, intellectual, linguistic, and bibliographic contexts, outlining the uroscopic tradition to which Daniel contributes, and describing the relationships among the many manuscripts containing the Liber Uricrisiarum. This edition presents the Middle English text, with a general glossary, glossary of proper names, and explanatory notes that explain obscure words and phrases and identify Daniel’s sources. It also includes the complete set of diagrams contained in the Royal manuscript; appendices providing the Latin and English versions of the prologue and epilogue; an extensive translation from one of Daniel’s important sources, Isaac Israeli’s De urinis; tables relevant to Daniel’s astronomical measurements; and an analysis of the Royal manuscript’s dialect. Cumulatively, the edition and apparatus introduce readers to an important yet understudied text, the details of which will have significant impact on studies of medieval medicine and science, intellectual history, and Middle English language and literature.

The first modern edition of eight contemporary chronicles covering the Wars of the Roses up to the return of Edward IV in 1471. The eight chronicles edited here are the principal surviving historical narratives of the Wars of the Roses written in English by men who lived through those wars. These are the best accounts by commoners (and one lord) written for their fellow Englishmen, produced within a few years of the events they describe, and have a particular immediacy. Five of these chronicles recount in detail particular events: The First Battle of St Albans (21-23 May 1455) and The Siege of Bamburgh Castle (June-July 1464) (batttles);The Rebellion in Lincolnshire (March 1470), and The History of the Arrival of King Edward IV (March-May 1471) (campaigns); and The Manner and Guiding of the Earl ofWarwick (22-30 July 1470) (negotiations). The remaining three describe the development of the larger conflict over extended periods: the Continuation of Gregory's Chronicle (1450-69), Howard's Chronicle (1461-70), and Warkworth's Chronicle (1461-74).They do not cover the last stages of the Wars of the Roses, since by the end of May 1471, it must have looked as if the conflict was permanently resolved. These accounts, although contemporary, have to be treated with caution. All of them are narratives of public events intended for public consumption. They remain, however, vibrant and immediate accounts of the events they describe in a systematic, modern edition.